Enlarge the effectiveness of the ＂trade-in＂ policy

To better stimulate the consumption potential and do a good job of replacing old appliances with new ones, we should base ourselves on the present situation, make full use of various preferential policies, mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties, unblock and solve the difficulties, give full play to the leading role of standards, and let good policies play a good role.

Recently, with the promulgation of the Action Plan to Promote Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods, various forms of home appliance trade-in actions have been kicked off in various places and achieved good results. In the future, how to further release the consumption potential of the home appliance market through trade-in is worthy of attention.

As the main durable consumer goods in China, household appliances have a long industrial chain, a large market volume and a strong driving role. At present, a considerable number of household appliances have great potential for upgrading due to their long service life, hidden dangers in quality and safety, and relatively high energy consumption. Implementing the trade-in of household appliances can effectively activate the consumption potential of household appliances, help improve the quality and expansion of consumption, provide demand support for the smooth supply and demand cycle, and then promote the overall economic recovery.

At the same time, China has the largest consumer market of household appliances in the world, with a huge stock of household appliances, and there is a lot of room for energy saving, carbon reduction and resource conservation. Accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation and recycling of household appliances is an inevitable choice to achieve sustainable development. Implementing the trade-in of household appliances is conducive to promoting the recycling of resources. The data shows that an ordinary refrigerator can recycle 9 kilograms of plastic, 38.6 kilograms of iron, 1.4 kilograms of copper and other resources. In addition, new household appliances are often better than old ones in terms of energy efficiency, and energy conservation and carbon reduction can be greatly promoted by replacing old ones with new ones.

Trade-in of home appliances is not a simple replacement of similar products, but an upgrade to a higher-end, smarter and more environmentally friendly product, so that energy-saving, environmentally friendly and intelligent high-quality home appliances can enter thousands of households, which is conducive to enhancing consumers’ sense of acquisition, happiness and security. This move can also promote the development of home appliance manufacturing, retail, logistics, after-sales, recycling and dismantling, and play a certain role in increasing residents’ employment and income.

In the future, in order to better stimulate the consumption potential and do a good job of replacing old appliances with new ones, we should make full use of all kinds of preferential policies based on the present, unblock and solve the difficulties, and let good policies play a good role.

Overall coordination, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties. Trade-in of household appliances involves a wide range, involving many localities and departments, as well as different links such as production, circulation, consumption and recycling. Therefore, we should pay attention to the linkage between departments and localities, make overall plans to support all links in the whole chain of household appliances production, sales, recycling and utilization, and realize the collaborative linkage between government, enterprises and people, upstream and downstream, and online and offline. Optimize the design of policy mechanism, benefit all stakeholders in the whole chain, fully stimulate the enthusiasm of manufacturers, sellers, recycling enterprises, dismantling enterprises, consumers and other parties, and promote good policies to be effective.

Comprehensive policy, get through the old-for-new plugging points of home appliances. Trade-in of household appliances involves a long chain and many links, and there are still some difficulties in the whole cycle of production, circulation, consumption and recycling. Only by effectively solving the outstanding shortcomings can we fundamentally release the policy effect and stimulate the consumption potential of the household appliances market. Do a good job in recycling waste household appliances, and build a closed loop of the whole chain of "replacement+recycling" by opening up recycling and replacement channels, so as to realize the integration of sending new products and collecting old ones, thus forming a strong traction for the trade-in business and better promoting the consumption of household appliances. Further improve relevant supporting facilities, strengthen the planning and construction of urban professional distribution centers, e-commerce logistics nodes and terminal distribution outlets, and focus on strengthening rural logistics infrastructure and sales and recycling outlets.

Give consideration to the long-term and give better play to the leading role of standards. What kind of standards have what kind of quality, and the level of standards directly determines the strength of product competitiveness. Reasonable standards are conducive to improving product quality and promoting the healthy development of the industry. For example, the energy consumption standard of household appliances directly affects the green development level of the whole industry. In the process of replacing old appliances with new ones, we should focus on making good use of the "baton" of standards, give play to the leading role of standards in the fields of energy saving, low carbon, health and safety, promote product upgrading and consumption upgrading, guide quality consumption, and let more high-quality household appliances enter residents’ lives. Maintain the dynamic update of household appliance standards, steadily improve the standard level, do a good job of effective connection with sales preferential policies, and give full play to the effectiveness of policies.

In order to achieve practical results, we should actively use all kinds of preferential policies. In the process of replacing old appliances with new ones, many places often introduce corresponding preferential policies. Accurate and effective financial support policies are conducive to stimulating residents’ willingness to buy, leading to the upgrading of household appliances consumption, and forming a virtuous circle of mutual promotion between supply and demand. It is necessary to be convenient and affordable, flexibly use policy tools such as consumer subsidies, consumer vouchers, and interest discounts on consumer loans, simplify the application process for preferential policies, give full play to the advantages of Internet platforms, and create a market atmosphere of enthusiastic consumption. Do what you can, reasonably determine the scope of financial support, and at the same time guide the business entities to make a balanced calculation according to the sales quantity, pricing and profit, and promote household appliances to be replaced with new ones through flexible price adjustment to ensure a reasonable profit space. (Shen Li)